Manchester United winger Alejandro Garnacho could face problems with the English Football Association (FA) after posting gorilla emojis in reference to Andre Onana’s penalty save.
The Argentina international added two gorilla emojis to a social media post with a photo of Onana and his teammates celebrating the Cameroonian’s last-minute save from Jordan Larsson’s penalty, which put Manchester United ahead impose 1-0 against Copenhagen in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Garnacho was advised to edit his post on X – formerly known as Twitter – because it could have been interpreted as having racial overtones. He deleted the emojis and later deleted the message, although it was screenshotted by social media users and posted to Reddit.
This message could earn Garnacho a suspension, given the Federation’s previous actions regarding messages with racial connotations. In 2020, Edinson Cavani, then United striker, was suspended for three matches for writing “Gracias Negrito” to a friend on Instagram who congratulated him on his goal. The term “Negrito” is sometimes used as an affectionate greeting in Uruguay, but the message did not comply with the FA’s guidelines regarding racist messages on social media.
In 2019, Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva was sent off for one match and fined GBP 50,000 by the FA for a racist message regarding his then teammate Benjamin Mendy. Silva had tweeted a photo of Mendy as a child alongside an old image of the Spanish company “Conguitos” which was condemned for its racist overtones.
